Earn Your Nursing Degree at a Virginia Nursing School

Become an RN or LPN with a Bulletproof Career

From mountain to sea and from rural to urban the nursing schools in Virginia deliver a diverse educational opportunity. Check out the list of accredited schools below. You’ll find all types of nursing degrees represented and types of schools: Diploma, Practical Nursing, Associates, Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral.

Practical Nursing programs, along with Bachelors degrees, offer fewer waiting lists to prospective nurses in VA. The Associates degree in nursing remains a popular choice for its relative affordability and brevity, but not if you’ll be required to sit on a waiting list for a few years. Alternatives to these include: online nursing degrees and accelerated degrees for students that have a previous degree in a non-nursing field.

Financial Incentives in Virginia for Student Nurses

The Virginia State Loan Repayment Program is designed to put primary care health professionals, including Nurse Practitioners, into rural or urban underserved facilities. Two-years of service in this capacity is repaid with a possible $25,000 in loan repayment assistance.

Other possible sources for nursing student financial aid in the state:

Nursing Association scholarships

Scholarships from your school

Tuition reimbursement from your employer

Loan repayment from a healthcare recruiter or employer

Rural vs. Urban Nursing Opportunities for New Grads

In Virginia as in other regions of the country, new nurse grads gravitate to hospital staff nurse jobs and especially to metro regions, like Richmond, where large hospitals have high nursing demands and potentially lucrative signing bonuses. Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center is a Level 1 Trauma Center and teaching hospital. As such it can pull scads of nurses in all types of specialties and offer dynamic learning-based practice for new nurse grads.

But while you’re considering your nursing education and career don’t overlook the opportunities in nursing outside a busy urban hospital. Many smaller VA communities have high nursing needs in equally bustling community or regional hospitals, outpatient surgical centers, urgent care centers and even nursing homes and long term care facilities.

Resources

The Virginia Board of Nursing regulates all nursing practice in the state, from licensure to discipline. Here’s the type of information you’ll regularly need from the VA BON:

Licensure for RNs, LPNs and Advanced Practice RNs

Approved schools of nursing in the state and NCLEX pass rates

Laws and guidelines for scopes of nursing practice in Virginia

Current news and legislation for VA nurses

and much more

The Virginia Nurses Association is a united voice for professional nurses. The organization invites membership from all areas of nursing. Members are privy to educational events, scholarships, conferences, legislative actions, and continuing education programs.